The present disclosure relates generally to telecommunications, and specifically to techniques for signal extension signaling.
The deployment of wireless local area networks (WLANs) in the home, the office, and various public facilities is commonplace today. Such networks typically employ a wireless access point (AP) that connects a number of wireless stations (STAs) in a specific locality (e.g., home, office, public facility, etc.) to another network, such as the Internet or the like. A set of STAs can communicate with each other through a common AP in what is referred to as a basic service set (BSS). Nearby BSSs may have overlapping coverage areas and such BSSs may be referred to as overlapping BSSs or OBSSs.
In order to address the desire for greater data throughput using WLANs (e.g., Wi-Fi networks), different approaches are being considered. For example, in the IEEE 802.11ax Wi-Fi standard, a larger number of tones are processed and decoded when compared to earlier or legacy Wi-Fi standards (e.g., IEEE 802.11ac). The larger number of tones allows more data to be transmitted in the same bandwidth and time period.
The processing of signals with a larger number of tones may result in receiver devices having to perform additional processing on frames or data units (e.g., packet layer convergence protocol (PLCP) protocol data units (PPDUs)) than what is needed to handle legacy frames or data units that use fewer tones. The additional processing may cause the receiver devices to take more time to process and decode the data units. There is therefore a desire for improvements in wireless communications that accommodate for the added time consumed by those receiver devices processing data units for networks with greater data throughput.